There is only one sure way to make the Pro Bowl Game relevant. Don’t play it. Now how easy is that? So easy even I thought of it.

It’s become a joke. So stomp the farce out of this thing, Roger Goodell. Put it out of its misery. It’s like asking Secretariat: “Ease up, Big Red; the Belmont’s a mile-and-a-half.” It’s like yelling to Franz Klammer: “Franz, you’re going down that mountain too fast!”

Goodell, the NFL commissioner, took one look at last year’s Pro Bowl Game, saw no football being played whatsoever, and being a man of vision, said it wasn’t up to NFL standards (kind of the way he feels about exhibition games).

It never really has been very good, but lately, with players bowing out, the fake injuries, the fear of rich athletes somehow getting hurt in an event that doesn’t matter, and that the game stupidly has been moved from a week after the Super Bowl to a week in front of it (today), well, it’s become even more ludicrous.

The commissioner seriously thought about canning the game altogether but agreed to give it one more go after the players union asked for a pardon (why, I don’t know). Many guys who haven’t played in a month are begging to get hurt -- even if it’s more like flag football. Hardly all injuries are caused by collisions.

“The players asked if they could take another crack at it and try to work to get the game more competitive,” Goodell said in October. “Obviously, I support that. But if we can’t accomplish that kind of standard, I’m inclined not to play it anymore.”

Trust me. That standard, be it Chiefs or 49ers, it isn’t being established.

Texans running back Arian Foster, the clear-thinking Mission Bay High product, had this to say on NFL Network this past week from Hawaii: “I see both sides of the coin, I really do. But in all honesty, with all due respect (to) Mr. Goodell, he’s not here taking these hits.

“It brings a lot of revenue, brings a lot of tourism here, so you don’t want to see it go. And it’s a tradition for the NFL, so hopefully we get it figured out.”

There’s only one way to get it figured out. Don’t play it.

Look, when we sit in the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection meetings (this one will be the day before the Super Bowl in New Orleans), the number of Pro Bowls a player has made always is brought up. Using San Diegans as an example, the late Junior Seau made 12, John Lynch nine. Way beyond good. But being selected to a Pro Bowl meant more when they played, especially earlier in their careers.

What I’m saying is: Making the Pro Bowl shouldn’t be irrelevant.

If this continues, we may have to look at modern Pro Bowlers the way baseball writers look at steroid users when voting for that Hall. Should we have to sift out the definites from the maybes? Many players belong in Honolulu. The problem is, too many don’t. And moving the Pro Bowl up to a week prior to the Super Bowl -- once again, smart people doing dumb things -- eliminates Super Bowl participants from attending the Hawaiian festivities.

By the count of esteemed Dallas Morning News columnist and football writer Goose Gosselin, 32 players will take part in today’s game who were not voted in. San Francisco and Baltimore, the two Super Bowl finalists, had 15 Pro Bowlers between them. So the guys who earned it can’t go and those who didn’t frolic on Waikiki for a week and pretend to play football on Sunday.

Here’s what the NFL and the union need to do. Go ahead and pick a Pro Bowl team. That’s one team, by position. The players still could receive contract perks for making it. And then, following the Super Bowl, ship them and their families to Hawaii -- at least those who want to go (most of them will, because it’s free and athletes love free). Do it up right. Throw them a lavish reception. Give them trophies. And then send them home to recuperate.

Peyton Manning led off the week in Hawaii all but begging his brethren to play at full speed and help the Pro Bowl Game return to the day when players really cared about it.

Well, maybe at one time they did. It no doubt meant more to than it does now. But a football all-star game never was a good idea.

Baseball’s all-stars once cared more about their game, but that kind of died after Pete Rose’s fire was extinguished. I don’t know that any all-star game matters anymore. Money and fun can supersede glory.

But Goodell could help solve it by putting his wing-tip down with authority and stopping this nonsense. Throw a party, Roger.

The NFL may be better at partying than it is playing football, anyway. It certainly is in Honolulu.